TYPE OF IMPACT
ON SOCIETY
• Access to
educational
opportunity
ENGAGING
EMPLOYEES
TO CLOSE
THE FINANCIAL
LITERACY GAP
• Learning
outcomes
• Strengthened
education
systems
ON SOCIETY
AND BUSINESS
• Development
of a skilled
workforce
• Eficiency
of education
collaborations
• Community
social and
economic
development
ON BUSINESS
PWC1
• Brand
differentiation
(GLOBAL /
FINANCIAL SERVICES)
• Employee
retention and
morale
• Proitability
• Business
resilience
TYPE OF
INVESTMENT
SUMMARY:
Combining Skills-Based Volunteering and
Financial Resources for Maximum Impact
As a professional services irm, PwC US has over
41,000 employees in the United States who provide specialized services to a diverse client base.
PwC recognizes that the skills of its employees
can be leveraged to address a major gap in the
education system of the United States, and in
June 2012, launched the Earn Your Future commitment with two goals: 1) help develop critical
inancial skills; and 2) provide educators with
the resources and training to teach those skills.
EYF is a multi-year investment which leverages
US$190 million in cash and in-kind contributions
over ive years.
• Direct Programming
• Educator Training
• Product
Development
• Infrastructure
• Policy Change
INTENDED
BENEFICIARIES
• Children, youth
and adult learners
• Educators
• Community
• Government
• Business
Photo: PwC
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THE EDUCATION ISSUE
PLANNING FOR IMPACT
In the United States, only 17 states require a personal inance
course as a high school graduation requirement2 and most teachers do not feel comfortable teaching inancial capability concepts
in their classrooms. However, 89% of primary and secondary
school teachers agree that students should either take a inancial
education course or pass a competency test for personal inance
before graduating from secondary school.3 This is validated by
economic data which shows that students from states where a
inancial education course is required are more likely to use credit
cards responsibly, save more money and take reasonable inancial
risk.4
EYF is designed to drive impact towards 1) improving
inancial education for students in a way that provides
increased access to educational opportunities
and leads to learning outcomes and economic
beneits on both a personal and country level; and
2) providing valuable training and resources to equip
educators to teach inancial skills.
THE BUSINESS CASE
PwC has a long-standing commitment to both its clients and the
communities in which it works, and sees social and environmental
programmes as investments in the long-term success of both.
PwC’s leadership believes that its success requires each one of its
employees to drive its vision. Therefore, it is critical for employees
to understand both the values and behaviours of the irm, as well
as its services and approach to the marketplace. This comprehensive understanding allows PwC employees to serve its clients better. The irm believes it is critical for employees to understand the
irm – from its values and behaviours to its services andapproach
to the marketplace – in order to serve clients better. Through Earn
Your Future (EYF), PwC sees an opportunity to engage its employees and provide them with valuable skills building opportunities
while addressing the shortfalls in the education system of the
United States, especially in underserved communities.
PwC also aims to improve employee retention and
morale by creating a volunteering programme that
utilizes and develops its employees’ work skills. Given
that EYF is one of the largest corporate commitments
of its kind, it also provides brand differentiation,
demonstrating the value that this type of investment
can bring as well as PwC’s values.
In PwC’s 17th Annual CEO Survey, 63% of CEOs
cited the availability of skills as a serious concern.5
PwC is also contributing to developing a skilled
workforce by 1) providing students with the ability
to make better inancial decisions, which ultimately
allows them to invest in their education or job training; and 2) providing PwC staff, many of whom will
go on to careers in other companies, an opportunity
to develop new skills that will serve them over the
course of their careers. In the long-term, a more
skilled workforce will be better equipped to reach its
personal goals and reinvest in its communities, leading to greater social and economic development.
THE INVESTMENT
PwC has committed its core resource – the time and skills of its
employees – and has made charitable grants in direct programming (curriculum, events and other resources) to deliver quality
inancial education. Examples include:
• PwC‘s EYF inancial literacy curriculum and other complementary resources, such as the JA Build Your Future app. PwC
employees are trained to collaborate with educators and teach
the curriculum domestically to students. Understanding that
education should be contextualized, each PwC ofice collaborates with local public and private schools, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
• PwC‘s collaborative relationship with Knowledge@Wharton
High School to deliver a business and inancial responsibility
education seminar. Since September 2012, PwC has sponsored educator training for more than 500 secondary school
educators and administrators to address high school teachers’
inancial literacy knowledge gap.
• Strategic collaborations with leading NGOs aid in building EYF’s
platform. PwC works with a diverse network of organizations,
such as the Clinton Global Initiative, Junior Achievement, First
Tee, DonorsChoose.org, MIND Research Institute, the Council
for Economic Education and a number of higher-learning academic institutions. These NGOs have speciic capabilities that
better allow PwC to deliver EYF’s beneits.
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BE SMART
OUTCOME & IMPACT
Consistent with its client-service strategy,
PwC is ensuring that EYF is outcomesoriented and results-driven. To measure impact, PwC tracks data points both
internally and externally. Internally, PwC
has demonstrated a signiicant increase
in employee engagement, including the
retired PwC partner community. Externally, PwC tracks students’ knowledge
and skills improvements via pre and post
assessments and measures its impact
with educators via professional development surveys.
PwC is on track to achieve the outcome and impact it intended when it launched
EYF. To date, over 500,000 hours have been contributed towards youth education and development and over 47,000 educators have received educational,
inancial or development resources and training.
In order to maintain its level of commitment to EYF, PwC continually reevaluates
its allocated resources. Most recently,
PwC extended its commitment by US$30
million, bringing its total commitment to
US$190 million. PwC also solicits feedback from staff, students and educators
on ways the programme can be improved
upon. The combination of a inancial commitment and staff engagement positions
EYF to be a sustainable and scalable
programme.
PwC is also collecting and monitoring data to demonstrate the learning
outcomes of EYF. While a longer-term study is needed to prove that EYF
statistically contributes to the development of a skilled workforce and community social and economic development, anecdotal evidence suggests that EYF
improves both employee engagement as well as student engagement.
EYF is becoming ingrained in PwC’s culture from the most senior leaders to
newest staff members. EYF is also directly tied into the PwC pro-bono service
offerings and the irm has contributed nearly US$2.3 million since 2012 in
pro-bono services focused on youth education.5
PwC sees social and environmental
programmes as investments in the long-term
success of both its clients and the communities
in which it works.
LESSONS LEARNED
EYF underscores the importance of involving all staff levels
within an organization. PwC’s new hires are provided with a
clear understanding of the EYF mission and shown how to
get involved. Employees who are more experienced with EYF
volunteering are empowered to train other employees on the
curriculum and classroom tactics. Often, the EYF trainers are the
junior staff members, which further demonstrates PwC’s culture
of promoting coaching as a two-way street. While the goal to
improve inancial literacy is singular, the opportunities to participate in a volunteer/leadership capacity are diverse and PwC’s
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staff voice that EYF is an excellent vehicle for internal networking and team building. EYF also shows the value of empowering
local networks, teams and individuals to act as change agents.
EYF was announced and supported by senior leaders, but it is
successful largely in part because local ofices have taken ownership, led by dedicated EYF Partner Champions within each of
the 21 geographic markets. The infrastructure of EYF successfully balances the national-local connection, using the competencies of both levels to drive engagement and impact.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the United States member irm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network.
Each member irm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details
2
Council for Economic Education. Economic and Personal Finance Education in our Nation’s Schools. New York: Council for Economic Education, 2014.
3
W. L. Way and K. Holden. Teachers’ Background & Capacity to Teach Personal Finance: Results of a National Study. Denver: National Endowment for Financial Education, 2010.
4
Council for Economic Education. The 2014 National State of Financial and Economic Education. Accessed 11 May 2015 at http://www.surveyofthestates.com/#state-of-inancial-and-economicprograms-across-the-nation.
5
PwC. 17th Annual Global CEO Survey. Accessed on 11 May 2015 at http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/2014/index.jhtml.